New conversion projects on three aging, mostly empty office buildings in Arlington have caused the county’s office vacancy rate to drop by more than a full percentage point.
County leaders hope that these adaptive reuse projects, combined with newly approved standards for signage on commercial buildings, contribute to making Arlington a more enticing place for developers and corporate tenants alike.
The changes are “a big deal” in helping the county address ongoing challenges, County Manager Mark Schwartz said at a County Board meeting on Saturday.
Board members said the votes on building-conversion projects at 2100 Crystal Drive, 2200 Crystal Drive and 3601 Wilson Blvd validate the county’s Adaptive Reuse Policy, adopted late last year.
The new policy gives developers a streamlined review schedule for office-to-residential and office-to-hotel conversions, especially if the proposals involve few changes to exterior conditions or overall bulk.
“We’re very, very excited about this ongoing work,” Board Chair Takis Karantonis said.
Taking the three buildings out of the ranks of office stock will immediately reduce the county’s current office-vacancy rate of 23.5% to 22.2%, Schwartz said. Another adaptive-reuse project to be considered in September is likely to reduce the rate below 22%.
All the reductions will be helpful as Arlington attempts to deal with 10.5 million square feet of vacant office space, a situation that has ripple effects across the government budget and broader economy.
“That is a huge benefit to Arlington, because these are buildings that are not going to be filled otherwise,” Board member Maureen Coffey said.
Coffey called the July 19 meeting “a big day” for the county.
Her colleague Susan Cunningham acknowledged that streamlining the adaptive-reuse effort has not been perfect, but said as staff and the community see more in the pipeline, the process will improve on both sides.
“We’ll get faster and we’ll get better at it,” she predicted.
Specific actions taken by Board members on July 19 included:
2100, 2200 Crystal Drive
Board members voted 5-0 to approve conversion of JBG Smith office buildings at 2100 and 2200 Crystal Drive into a 344-room hotel and 195 units of apartment living, respectively.
The project had received support from the Planning Commission, which forwarded it to Board members with a positive recommendation.
“We’re extremely excited about this project, and we also are excited to see what comes down the pike along these lines, as well,” said Denyse “Nia” Bagley, vice chair of the commission.
Removing hundreds of thousands of square feet of empty office space from the county’s building stock will be a major benefit for the overall commercial market and broader community, Board member JD Spain, Sr., said.
“This project is going to stimulate our economy,” he said. “We just need to continue to push [for others].”
The proposal drew mixed reactions from those who turned up to speak at the public hearing.
“I’m really enthusiastic,” said Anshu Sharma, a graduate student who lives in the area and said both the apartments and hotel rooms would benefit the community.
John Musso, government-affairs director of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, voiced that organization’s support.
“This project is the perfect example of the transformational power that the county’s adaptive-reuse policy can entail,” he said.
Speakers Keith Willis and Bryan Coleman had no complaints about the overall project, but voiced concern that organized labor would be shut out during the reconstruction effort and in the operation of the hotel.
“The project should have some project-labor standards attached to it,” said Willis, who works for the AFL-CIO and chairs the labor caucus of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.
Several years ago, perennial County Board candidate Audrey Clement began beating the drum to repurpose aging office buildings to other uses, but often found herself drowned out by naysayers.
“I’ve been pushing office to residential conversions — aka adaptive reuse — of obsolete office buildings as a candidate since 2022,” Clement told ARLnow.
Rather than using Saturday’s Board meeting as a told-you-so moment, Clement instead said she was “delighted that County Board and JBG now embrace the concept and that they are implementing it.”
3601 Wilson Blvd
Gilbane Development won Board approval to convert 119,564 square feet of vacant office and commercial space to 94 residential units plus about 5,600 square feet of ground-floor retail at 3601 Wilson Blvd in Virginia Square.
The building, set on 0.94 acres, is adjacent to the Virginia Square-GMU Metro station. It is bounded by N. Nelson Street and Oakland Park to the west, 9th Street N. to the north, N. Monroe Street to the east and Wilson Blvd to the south. It has an underground parking garage with 207 spaces.
The project was adopted as part of the Board’s monthly consent agenda, and represented the first site-plan action under the adaptive-reuse policy adopted last November.
Coupled with the Crystal City project approved later in the meeting, the initiative is off to a strong start, Karantonis said.
“We’re very, very excited about this ongoing work,” he said.
Sign-ordinance revisions
Also as part of the consent agenda, Board members approved updates to the county’s 2012 sign ordinance.
The revisions make it easier for property owners and tenants to have exterior signage approved, and provide more flexibility for the placement of signage on buildings.
The revamped process may make Arlington more attractive among major corporate tenants, who often like to have their names emblazoned on high-visibility buildings.
Karantonis said the revisions adopted July 19 represent the first part of a two-pronged effort, with the next phase to begin in late summer. Efforts are a continuation of the county government’s most recent efforts to support commercial-market resiliency, which began in 2022.
Those efforts are taking place on five tracks: office conversion, repositioning, redevelopment, tenant support and placemaking.
